LinkedIn Maintains its Place in Social Networking

I have to admit, when I first created a profile on LinkedIn six years ago, I suspected it was something different. It was my first experience with ‘social networking’ even though it wasn’t referred to as such in 2004. Instead it was labeled a professional networking site.

Then along came Facebook, MySpace and all the others but none seemed to be a threat to LinkedIn because it had carved out a specific niche.

Until Facebook grew up and became a destination for Boomers to reconnect with long lost friends, high school buddies, college classmates – and yes – connections with potential employers.

So, it wasn’t surprising when I read the Wall Street Journal article about how leaders at LinkedIn are positioning the site to compete with Facebook in terms of stickiness – or better put – the amount of time visitors spend on the site. And let’s face it if you have a LinkedIn profile and you’re active on Facebook, you know how much time you’re spending on each site. Something like 13 minutes on LinkedIn vs. 213 minutes on Facebook, according to third-party research.

However, it doesn’t take much to figure out that some of the functionality available on Facebook is slowly making its way to LinkedIn, which threatens to disrupt the professionalism of LinkedIn’s character. Hardly anyone ever updated their status on LinkedIn the same way they do on Facebook until recently. And now with the integration of Twitter, users can tweet a LinkedIn status update seamlessly.  

But with all of the practical and professional uses of LinkedIn, I want to explore some aspects of the site with the following questions:  

1. Do LinkedIn users want to interface with professional connections the same as they do with friends on Facebook?

The answer to this question is obvious as there is a difference between professional contacts and friends. And the comments to the WSJ article bear that out. Most people believe LinkedIn should remain a ‘business networking tool’ while others commented that connections on LinkedIn are not the same as friends on Facebook.

There was a subsequent discussion recently in the Social Media Today group on LinkedIn started by blogger J. Paul Duplantis regarding the proper etiquette in ‘friending’ someone on LinkedIn. In three days the topic drew over 98 comments (and counting), including mine, on what is perceived as the proper way to accept or reject a request to ‘join my network.’  Reading some of the responses it was clear that the differentiation between Facebook and LinkedIn is starting to blur a little bit when it comes to building connections.

 2. How do you make effective use of LinkedIn for business?

For those using LinkedIn to source business contacts, there is a new feature called Faceted Search, which allows you to refine or drill down when searching for people based on specific ‘facets.’ Bottom line, you get a much more relevant search using this functionality.

3. Has anyone ever landed a job or an awesome business deal through LinkedIn?

The answer to this question is really a demonstration of LinkedIn’s value in professional online networking. In light of some of the improvements that are being added to LinkedIn, there are a number of professionals like myself who are taking a second look at LinkedIn as a viable option. And let’s not forget the hundreds of consultants who are doing training sessions on how to make better use of LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is not Facebook. It’s not MySpace and it’s certainly not Twitter. To paraphrase former Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green: LinkedIn is what we thought it was…a social networking tool for professionals.

The last and final question: Is LinkedIn a valuable resource to you? Why or why not?